The NFL has its Valentine’s Day headliner, but a group of fans isn’t feeling the love.

Jay-Z is slated to perform the Apple Music Super Bowl LXI Halftime Show, taking place on Feb. 14, 2027, at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The league made the announcement during the Week 7 Monday Night Football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles.

Part of the pushback centers on who helped make the call. Roc Nation, the entertainment company Jay-Z founded, has had a deal with the NFL since 2019 to produce the halftime show. Through that co-production partnership, he has been an essential figure in deciding who performs on the grandest stage of them all.

Jay-Z Set to Headline Super Bowl Halftime Show, But Here’s What Fans Have to Say

The news didn’t come out of nowhere. Puck reported last week that Jay-Z was expected to land the job, with Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber also under consideration.

Monday’s joint announcement from Apple Music, the NFL and Roc Nation made it official, and Jay-Z, a 25-time Grammy winner, celebrated in a statement: “From Reasonable Doubt to standing on the Super Bowl Halftime stage, this has been a journey. … This run continues to be a dream come true.”

The pushback was already rolling by the time ESPN insider Adam Schefter drew attention to the announcement, and one fan zeroed in on how the pick came together: “I was really hoping this was a rumor… How do you pick yourself for the halftime show?”

Pro Football Network’s X account also weighed in on the news.

Super Bowl LXI will be the eighth halftime show produced under Roc Nation’s partnership with the NFL, but the league’s side of the story goes back to the very start.

“When we first reached an agreement with Roc Nation to produce the show, I had just one request,” NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement, “that Jay-Z take the stage himself one day, whenever the moment felt right to him.”

Jay-Z had addressed the idea of picking himself before. “I thought it would be selfish to pick myself too early. Maybe one year. Maybe,” he told “Entertainment Tonight” in 2024.

For others, the issue was the generation gap. One fan wrote: “Half of this generation don’t even know none of his songs”

Another fan was just as blunt: “Lame… no one even listens to Jay Z like that in 2026.”

Jay-Z, a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer since 2021 with 14 No. 1 albums on the Billboard 200, spent this year playing stadiums. His run marking 30 years of his debut album, Reasonable Doubt, and 25 of The Blueprint sold out three nights at Yankee Stadium, stopped at Stade de France and London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, and played back-to-back shows at SoFi Stadium last weekend.

Others were simply let down. One fan wrote: “This is the most underwhelming Super Bowl announcement of all time.”

Another fan agreed: “Absolutely no one wants this lol”

However, not every fan was upset about Jay-Z headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show. Ashley Nicole Moss couldn’t hide her excitement. “BK BABY!!!!!!!!,” she wrote.

PFN’s Colin D’Cunha was another admirer of the call. “Jay-Z halftime show gonna go crazy bro,” he tweeted.

A third fan highlighted the star-studded lineup Jay-Z could offer. “People are going to cry about Jay-Z headlining the Super Bowl but hypothetically he can bring out Beyoncé, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, even Linkin Park (RIP Chester) and hit pretty much every demographic, it makes sense,” he tweeted.

Roc Nation, whose deal with the NFL was extended in 2024, will executive produce the show its founder now headlines, with Hamish Hamilton directing. The game will air on ESPN, ABC, and Disney+.